


Referendum Day

by angelbabe_cj



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bickering, Established Relationship, Finnigan's RPG 'Verse, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Racism, M/M, Same-Sex Marriage, neither is more than a passing thought about their existence for the POV character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 22:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12094617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelbabe_cj/pseuds/angelbabe_cj
Summary: Dean's experience on the day of the same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland. Featuring some funny looks, a nice stranger, some bickering, and a lot of love.No knowledge of the 'Verse is necessary. Totally stands alone.





	Referendum Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChalkLetters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChalkLetters/gifts).



> This was inspired by the same-sex marriage referendum on 22nd May 2015 in Ireland, when many, many Irish citizens travelled home to vote. At the time I was writing as Dean in an RPG and Seamus' player and I talked a bit about what the day might look like for them (they WOULD be together by then). I wrote it some time afterwards and finally got it ready for publication.
> 
> Technically this lives in the same universe as [Finnigan's RPG](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/finnigans_rpg/), but maybe the only thing you need to know that you might not get from the fic is that Greencastle is Seamus' home town, and has a significant magical population.

The stone under Dean’s fingers was rough and slightly grainy as he traced it where he was perched on the wall. The weather in Greencastle wasn’t too bad all things considered. Although given that it was May the prospect of rain was slightly lower than it might have been at another time of year. There was a dark cast to the ground and the wall he was sitting on that suggested there had been rain in the last six hours. Not that Dean would actually know that since he’d only arrived in the village in the last half hour.

 

He watched as yet another person walked past him towards the polling station in the village hall. A few of the people passing had eyed him suspiciously. He was in the Muggle part of the village after all and it wasn’t like he actually visited all that often, at least not the parts most people could see. It wasn’t that his skin stood out especially – there were black people in Ireland, just not a huge amount of them in small villages like this. Although that might well not be why they were looking at him. Particularly today.

 

Sure enough someone eventually came up to him. She was an older lady and given her clothing and apparent age she was probably a Muggle. Wizarding folk of that age rarely managed to put an outfit together that effectively.

 

“Are you going to sit there all day?” she asked, almost a demand. Unusual to not get a proper greeting, but it was an unusual day.

 

“No, I hope not,” he said and offered her a smile.

 

“Are you here to vote?” she asked, looking at him suspiciously.

 

“Er, no, I’m not,” he said, which was true enough.

 

“Are you on holiday?”

 

“No.”

 

“What are you doing then?”

 

“Just waiting for someone.” He glanced down at his watch. Hopefully not too much longer, the line couldn’t be that long.

 

She seemed to accept this and nodded, told him to have a nice day and walked away.

 

Dean was kicking his feet slightly and seriously considering pulling a sketchbook out of his bag when he was next approached. He would have started sketching right away, but he’d honestly not expected to be waiting so long.

 

This time the person was a man, probably in his twenties, sporting a rainbow flag pin on his jacket.

 

“You been to vote?” he asked. Dean shook his head, rubbing his hands together. The man flicked his eyes down to Dean’s hands and clearly caught sight of his ring.

 

“Whyever not? I mean, I know which way I want the vote to go,” he said, tapping his badge, “but I think it’s more important that you actually go vote.”

 

“Oh, I would if I could,” Dean said. “Not from around here, though.”

 

“Ah, that’s a pity. Are you here on holiday, then?” the man asked.

 

“No, I’m not actually. Although I’ve had holidays here before,” Dean said. He spotted a familiar head approaching from behind and couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face. He pushed himself off the wall and landed with a thump. It was fairly tall, enough that he’d needed to boost himself up rather than just sitting on it.

 

The man turned around at Dean’s clear distraction and didn’t seem to be quite sure what to make of the man coming towards them. Seamus was adorably messy haired and sporting a rather well-washed Pride t-shirt under his open jacket.

 

“All done?” Dean asked, wrapping an arm around his husband and kissing him hello again.

 

“I got cornered by one of Mam’s neighbours on the way in, but I’m done now. Who’s this?”

 

“Sounds about right,” Dean said. He glanced at the man who was now giving them surprised looks. “Sorry, I don’t think I caught your name,” he said. “I’m Dean, this is my husband, Seamus. We’re hoping we get to have another wedding here sometime soon if the vote goes the right way,” he explained.

 

The man managed to stop blinking long enough to smile at them both. “Right, yes I’m Darragh, sorry, I might have assumed something I shouldn’t,” he said, holding out his hand to them.

 

“My ring? Yeah, sorry, I was being a bit of a dick, I kept getting dirty looks from everyone. Not sure if it was my skin, sitting on the wall, or not going off to vote,” Dean said and took his hand.

 

Seamus shook Darragh’s hand too. “Not sure, but Mrs Flanagan was asking about you,” he said to Dean. “And you shouldn’t be mean to people.” Seamus poked Dean lightly in the side, which made him squirm away.

 

“Not mean, just honest. I just didn’t tell them everything. I’m still never quite sure who I can trust to tell all the time.” He shrugged. Their relationship was definitely one which had been increasingly recognised in a public way whichever side of the North Sea they happened to be. Sadly that didn’t always mean it was always seen as a good thing.

 

“You two are cute,” Darragh said.

 

Dean couldn’t help but chuckle. “Most of our friends think it’s nauseating.”

 

“Most of our friends are probably right, you know,” Seamus pointed out.

 

“How long have you been married?” Darragh asked, which was probably the right point to interrupt before they descended into a silly round of bickering. Clever man.

 

Dean reached for Seamus’ hand and twined their fingers together, feeling the hard line of Seamus’ wedding band against his own fingers and smiling. “Depends which time you’re talking about,” he said.

 

“Yeah,” Seamus chipped in. “We had a traditional, er, handfasting type thing that’s not really legally recognised by the, er, government,” he said, referencing their wizarding wedding which was legally recognised, but only in wizarding Britain. “Then we had a civil partnership, which we converted to an actual marriage last year, so if this passes it will be our fourth.”

 

“Seems a bit excessive, maybe, but it means a lot to us,” Dean said, smiling.

 

“Mam’ll be pleased,” Seamus said.

  
“She just likes a good excuse to cry at wedding, but yeah, she’ll be pleased too,” Dean agreed.

 

“Ah, you’re all sappy,” Seamus said, nudging Dean.

 

“Not the only one,” Dean muttered. Which he knew Seamus was, although apparently not at that moment.

 

Darragh laughed at them and they both turned to smile at him, hands still clasped tight. “I hope this goes your way, well, our way,” he said. “I’m not sure it will.”

 

“My sister said there’s lots of people coming back to vote. It’s big thing apparently,” Dean said. Jess had indeed been talking to him about it before they’d set off, managing to corner him on the phone for once. She’d been talking about Twitter and a hashtag and all sorts of things he didn’t really follow because he inhabited the magical world far more than the wizarding one.

 

“Oh, the home to vote thing?” Darragh asked. “Sure, it’s kind of huge. Did you not meet anyone on the plane?”

 

“Oh, we didn’t fly in,” Seamus said. It was true, they’d apparated to the magical end of the village and walked down, but they could hardly say that.

 

“Nobody on the ferry?” Darragh asked.

 

Dean shrugged. “Not that we saw.” Which was true enough. They hadn’t come on the ferry, of course, but saying they hadn’t seen anyone on it wasn’t actually a lie.

 

Darragh gave them a slightly odd look and tilted his head. “Oh, do you come from the other end of the village?” he asked Seamus, the inflection in his voice clearly showing that he had an idea of what he was talking about.

 

“Mostly these days he comes from London,” Dean said lightly, not wanting to be too obvious.

 

“I run the proverbial Irish pub too,” Seamus added with a growing grin.

 

“Down a little Alley?” Darragh asked.

 

Dean and Seamus both broke into grins. “Well, it’s not so dark down there these days as when we both first saw the entrance, but yeah, it is,” Dean said.

 

“These days it’s even monumental you might say,” Darragh said and grinned. “You must be Seamus _Finnigan_ , unless you changed your name,” he said. “I know your Mam, well, my Mam does anyway.”

 

“I am! Good to meet you properly, and Mam knows most people in that part of the village, doesn’t surprise me.”

 

“Mama F is a well loved and beautiful woman,” Dean said, which got him another poke for his tone. Cheeky man had used the hand he was still holding onto as well. “Oi. She is!”

 

“Well, yes, but your tone implied something else,” Seamus said and Dean grinned.

 

“Definitely adorable,” Darragh said and then sighed. “I’ve gotta go vote, but it was nice meeting you both.”

 

“You too,” Dean said, reaching for his hand again. “I’d say we might see you later, but I’ve convinced Seamus to take the rest of the day off and we’re off on a trip.”

 

“Once we’ve actually had a drink with Mam.”

 

“As he said, once we’ve seen the mother-in-law,” Dean said.

 

“Don’t be like that, you know she loves you as much as me,” Seamus retorted.

 

“More some days,” Dean teased.

 

Darragh waved at them as he turned to go towards the village hall, clearly he’d got the right impression. They managed to wave back, but Dean knew they’d be able to carry on like this for a while, and there was pretty much zero heat to any of it, just some good natured bickering.

 

“She does not love you more!”

 

“She does when I remember to fire call her and you don’t.”

  
  
“That was once and we’d a big event on!”

 

“I was helping behind the bar and I still managed two minutes to let her know we were busy!” Finally that seemed to break Seamus’ mild irritation and he gave Dean a chagrined smile, curling their hands together once more.

 

“Love you,” Seamus said.

 

“Love you, too,” Dean replied, leaning in and kissing him on the temple. "C'mon. Tea and then a date."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading, and thanks especially to [Coconutice22](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Coconutice22/pseuds/Coconutice22) for the beta, and [ChalkLetters](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ChalkLetters/pseuds/ChalkLetters) for being the Seamus to my Dean. ♥


End file.
